New Jersey’s sagging economy needs to be the priority of our elected officials over the coming months. Our state has not been able to rebound from the recession as quickly as we all had hoped.

New Jersey’s unemployment rate, at 9.5 percent, remains above the national average.
Something needs to be done now to help small businesses grow, to attract new businesses to the state and to bring jobs to New Jersey. That is why I have proposed a series of legislative initiatives to help to kick-start the economy.

These bills represent a great opportunity to put people back to work. By implementing these measures, we can begin to turn back the tide of our slumping economy and make New Jersey a powerhouse and example to the rest of the country.

The consequences of our stagnant economy are something I see almost every day at my union hall. All too often, I see people who haven’t worked in months, even years. These are people who have lost their health benefits or have lost pension time they can never get back. And this is happening everywhere in New Jersey.

We simply cannot allow these folks, most of whom are unemployed through no fault of their own, to fall by the wayside. We need action.

The package I have proposed will include existing legislation, previously discussed ideas and new concepts.

Among the existing ideas we will examine are establishing a Grow New Jersey Assistance Program, which will provide tax credits to businesses that create jobs and make significant capital investments in our state; providing energy tax exemptions for our state’s manufacturing businesses; and allowing tax exemptions for businesses that provide employment to National Guard members or reservists.

New proposals include establishing a Small Business Loan Program, where certain businesses would be eligible for 2 percent interest rate loans of up to $250,000 to expand their enterprise, if the business commits to increasing its overall employment by at least 10 percent; expanding existing tax credit programs — now only provided to traditional “C corporations” — to other types of businesses, such as LLCs and S-corps; creating a “linked deposit” program to encourage banks to lend to expanding New Jersey employers; and dedicating a small percentage of the sales tax revenue generated in Urban Enterprise Zones to back the state Economic Development Authority’s Food Access Initiative, which supports the development of new supermarkets in urban areas.

While we will do everything we can at the state level, we also are going to need help from the federal government.

President Obama has laid out an ambitious job creation agenda. When combined with what we hope to do here in New Jersey, it can create just the kind of jump-start we need.
But we need Congress to act. Investment in transportation projects and our infrastructure is a sure way to get people back to work, while also making our roads, rails and bridges safe and sound.

Moreover, maintaining the cut in the payroll tax will help working families during these difficult times by putting money in their pockets.

I want to begin moving on the legislation package in the coming weeks, with further details to emerge as bills and ideas are developed.

It is my sincere hope that I can work with my colleagues across the aisle and Gov. Chris Christie in order to get the economy moving again. In fact, many of the existing measures included in this package have Republican sponsors.

The only way we are going to get out of this is by working together.

We saw, earlier in the year, that Democrats and Republicans can do this for the greater good of our state.

At the end of the day, it’s not about taking credit for who did what. It is about getting New Jersey back to work again.